I’ve been looking for a decent set of cheap 28mm scale crates for a while. I picked up a few white metal crates from Ebob Miniatures mid 2006, unfortunately being ‘true’ 28mm scale I found them a little small for my tastes.

Being the tight fisted individual I am, I finally snapped and spent an evening earlier this week building crate masters from scraps of foam card, 1mm balsa and plasti-card. Then I molded them overnight and cast several sets in resin during the mid-week Anzac day holiday here in New Zealand.

The photo shows the three styles of crate I mastered, two quite similar crates, one with supports on top and sides, and one with supports just on the top, and one more complex metal reinforced crate. For comparison I’ve piled them up next to a couple of Artizan Design DAK sentries and a set of partially painted Ebob white metal crates - those are the small brown crates in the foreground.

I’m very happy with the results and hope to cast around 15 sets of them before the resin damages the mold beyond use. I’ll probably also use some of the individual casts to build larger stacks of crates that I’ll mold and cast in Ultracal 30. Crate stacks would be handy for all kinds of Pulp gaming: ammo dumps, dock-sides, Nazi u-boat bases, dusty warehouses etc.

What! It’s almost May already? I meant to have several 15mm facades mastered by now, but I’ve only just got around to planning my second over the weekend!

This one will be both shorter, with only one full upper storey and narrower, with thinner columns, than my first 15mm facade. It’s intended to represent another European building, although possibly older than 1930’s. Here’s the 1:1 sketch plan for measurement next to a cast of the earlier facade. Those black spots are spilled ink I accidently flicked across my work area.

I’ve placed the sketch next to a cast facade to get some idea of what they’ll look like together, because of course I want to line up my casts into shelled out streets at some point, hopefully before the end of 2007!

In terms of trim it’ll be a little simpler than the first facade, although I do still need to master the thin vertical columns, and a couple of decorative side pieces for the portico. I plan to use these pieces for front detailing on later buildings too. I’m also using the newer curved and arched window frames. I’ve cut that arched window down ready to drop into the cast wall.

Casting the master wall will be interesting because I want to copy the building I’m using for inspiration and have quite a curved arch around the top window. I suspect I’ll be making the master wall mold inside a cut foam board frame to keep everything in place for pouring.

The original building in the backstreets of Auckland City has a very European feel, particularly with the boxy roof/attic area you can see behind the top window. I’ll be emulating that in the terrain piece I build from the first cast, going for a partially shelled Normandy town building…

Mark of Crescent Root Studio keeps creating excellent 28mm terrain. I already own eight of his Middle Eastern buildings and they’re superb for Pulp gaming.

Earlier this year he expanded the range to include several taller buildings with domed roofs and I couldn’t resist any longer. I ordered a couple of these new buildings last week and they’ve just arrived so here’s a quick review.

As usual I ordered unpainted buildings because they’re cheaper and I enjoy painting them myself. All of Mark’s terrain comes pre-primed and is cast in a sturdy yet light resin product. He must use some kind of micro-bead filler to extend the resin because with handling the buildings are always noticeably lighter than they appear to be. However they’re still weighty enough to stay in place during gaming.

Parts and Prep

These particular buildings consist of two large parts: the slightly raised basic building and a removable tower room. Both roofs are also removable which is important during gaming, and you’re supplied with two drop in doors for the doorways.

Prior to painting I find it’s a good idea to check everything fits well as occasionally light filing is required for ease of use. It’s also not a bad idea to spend a little time examining the doorways and windows as you may have to file off a little extra resin left from the casting process.

After this basic clean up I’ve always painted my Crescent Root buildings without any further preparation or priming. I use Resene interior acrylic house paints which bond very well with the pre-primed resin as I’ve yet to chip a building and they’ve been extensively handled.

Building Design

I purchased these buildings primarily because of their towers and domed roofs. Both these features distinguish them from my earlier Crescent Root purchases and mixing them in with my painted buildings gives the table a very nice Middle Eastern feel as shown in the table layout.

These buildings are noticeably taller than my others, mainly because their base is quite built up, with three steps leading up off the street to the ground floor. Pulp gamers will also notice the small, three windowed tower rooms make excellent “sniper nests” for your Rifle or SMG armed villains. Unfortunately there’s no way to get up to that tower room without a ladder - which means I’ll have to scratch a few together from balsa wood, or simply reuse the crude ladders I made years ago for my Mordheim table. Possibly Mark from CRS might consider creating some ladder accessories for these fine buildings.

One thing that does concern me about that tower room is that it simply rests on the walls below it. There’s no system for locking the tower in place at all which means it could be at risk from clumsy hands on the gaming table. I’ll probably end up drilling some aligned holes in the base of each tower and then applying some short ‘pins’ made from bamboo skewers in the wall below so the two pieces do lock together.

As usual I’m perfectly happy with my latest purchase from Crescent Root Studios. That’ll probably do for buildings now, although once I’ve laid them all out I notice there’s an obvious lack of fenced in back alleys. I suspect I’ll end up purchasing some of CRS’s matching Middle Eastern Walls at some point…

My dear wife made this tool roll for me during the weekend. Made from a hard wearing denim its got lots of pockets of various widths and is very handy.

I used to keep everything in two old “Jimbos” pet food containers, one for the sculpting tools and one for the paintbrushes. I’ve filled the tool roll with my collection of rusty, stained sculpting tools and having them all in one place and arranged in an easy to find manner is very nice. The chance of stabbing yourself in the hand is also greatly reduced when fishing around for tools.

She also stitched my initials on the outside of the tool roll - after I made a joke about wanting it monogrammed. However you don’t get to see those because that might give away too much information and reveal my secret identity. Plus I neglected to take a decent shot of the whole lot rolled up.

Now I just need to ask her nicely to create another for my various OO and OOO paintbrushes…

I recently spent a whole $6US and picked up some more downloadable PDFs from Eric Hotz’s Whitewash City range. In particular I grabbed his train station and various track sections.

I’m not after the train station per se, although it’ll come in handy if we play any more Gutshot. I wanted some quick and easy track sections that I can print out and add to my Crescent Root Middle Eastern buildings for a bit more of an urban feel.

I’ve also started putting together a more robust train station from Hirst Arts fieldstone and Egyptian blocks, while I’m writing “Luggage, Lost”, the first scenario in my next Pulp .45 Adventure campaign. It’s quite nice to be working with Hirst Arts blocks again as it seems a while since I’ve broken the Fieldstone molds out of storage…

Cee-Gee.net is an computer animation site run by a talented professional animator as a hobby.

The creator Marco Spitoni has recently posted “Code Guardian”, a thirteen minute movie of Pulp alternate WWII history with giant robots! Well worth checking out for Pulp inspiration.

It’s also a pretty impressive piece of computer animation and I can well understand why it took him five years to create this in his spare time. Man and I thought assembling and painting toy soldiers was a labour of love!

Speaking of German Robots, I’m very tempted to pick up a couple of “Power Armored Soldats” from the Project X range for use in my Pulp .45 Adventure scenarios. They’d look great in DAK desert colours, guarding the entrance to an underground test laboratory out in the desert.

I’m still painting Pulp figures for a new campaign. Here we have four more Obelisk Miniatures Baboons and a lone Bull Mastiff from Celtos that’s been kicking around my paint table since I reviewed his parent figure for Tabletop Gaming News.

Frankly I’m glad to have him finished because I had a bit of a mental block regarding how to paint dog skin. Still I think he turned out alright in the end. I also applied a little gloss varnish to his nose, teeth and eyes for a healthy shine.

Adding the four Baboons to the leader I painted earlier and I’ve got a troupe of angry primates ready to terrorize my hapless adventurers. I’m sure by now they’re all expecting my next campaign to be packed full with angry Baboons.

The other reason the mastiff figure has been lurking on my paint station is because I wanted to play him as a Grade 1 “Heroic Dog” in Pulp .45 Adventure. To be honest I think the Heroic Dog is undervalued, particularly since he moves quicker than most Heroes and has the “Keen Senses” ability which potentially allows him to peek at encounter markers before they’re revealed.

Here’s a little group photo of my own father/son team with their faithful hound. Now I just have to convince one of my gaming buddies to write some scenarios of their own so I can play Pulp .45 myself!